This quirky tale takes the reader through a timeline of inventions. In a wonderful blend of absurd poetry and British pragmatism, Mr Rouse contends with housing, transport, lighting, plumbing and timekeeping, encountering quarrelling stairs and dapper guttering on his way.

Franciszka and Stefan Themerson were leading figures in the Polish avant-garde during the 1930s. Both moved to Paris in 1938 and then on to London, where they established in 1948 the influential Gaberbocchus Press.